Tale off the base plate and touch a pin or piece of fuse-Wire into a drop of Sewing Machine Oil in a dish and touch the cogs and moving pivots -- I did my 1960's [b]Asahi Pentax SV, Spotmatic and the F and two Canon FTBn cameras[b] and they all work sweetly now !

I have been offered another FREE ENLARGER and all the gear-- if you can come to Brentwood Essex you can get it -- let me know -- it's a MEOPTA.

I took the base plate off my 1960's SVwith a small screwdriver in a 'spectacle repair kit'from Maplins ( fits the Japanese screws )-- well it had not been serviced for 40 years -- so I put ONE DROP of Three-in-One oil into a dish and picked up a touch on the end of some fuse-wire and touched the cogs and moving parts and it all winds on so sweetly now -- I have been told that '3-in-one' is NOT the best lube, better sewing machine oil or watch oil but no probs so far ----

there ARE 'mistakes ' made-- when I bought my 6x7 outfit in November 1980 I ordered the 'Ordinary' 75mm f4.5 lens with the 105 and the 200mm then when I opened the boxes some poor stock-room boy had put in the 75mm f4.5 SHIFT lens for £ 175- 00 --- well, i had a 'memory lapse; so forgot to tell them ----

Here is my 45mm f4 SMC Pentax I bought in Seattle USA in 1992 much cheaper than UK BUT the next day was 'Black Wednesday' when the pound plunged so it went UP in cost on my Credit Card !


Pentax 6x7 02 by pentaxpete, on Flickr
Here is Colorado, Denver USA taken with it on 120 size Kodachrome 64


USA : Colorado: Denver by pentaxpete, on Flickr

Old Taffy-- you can take off the base-plates of your Spotmatics if you can find a small enough screwdriver and very carefully lubricate the cogs and wheels and pivots-- I used Three-in-One oil ONE DROP into a dish and touched a piece of fuse-wire into it then touched the cogs etc etc and now my Spotmatics work very sweetly -- they need a lube after all those years !

Need a model with 1/250th flash synch -- Canon T 90 and Nikon did it years ago !

When I want my 'Holiday Snaps' processed I give them to BOOTS Brentwood High Street -- the technician there does a great job and ALL my film is outdated !! If you use outdated film please give it MORE EXPOSURE by downrating the ASA rating so the lab gets good dense negatives to work from.
If it is 'fridge kept 100 ASA I rate it at 64 ASA but 400 loses speed more so I rate it at 200 ASA and it comes out well -- if NO BOOTS then find a Pharmacy that deals with 'SigFoto' labs -- part of Sigma Pharmaceuticals -- they also do an excellent job. ( I already have THREE PRAKTICAS saved from the Council Tip and they all work well ! )

Yes, agree with above when I was a Part -Time Tutor in Photography Dept Barking College ALL the students got 'Bulk Loaded ' 35mm film from the Technician.

For many many years I have loaded 'bulk' films WITHOUT using a 'Bulk Film Loader' and I have TWO free ones on my Garage . In the DARKROOM I lay out some reloadable cassettes saved from Ilford FP3 and HP3 days -- I have about 80 in a box -- also the ORWO ones I still have about 30 -- then I take off the lids and stick some sellotape about inch and half onto spool center leaving a 'gap' open then in the DARK I open the 100ft tin and find the end of the film and attach to the sellotape gap the right way round for the spool to go into cassette, then keeping some tension on film I wind off until film feels level with spool flanges, then that is 36 exposures -- then cut with scissors ( which you didn't FORGET to have handy in the DARK) then clip on cassette lid - after all required cassettes have been loaded don't forget to put film back into TIN before turning on the LIGHT !
Here is a photo taken on 100ft of a strange FUJI SURVEICOLOR film 400 ASA I was given dated 2003 and I rated it 200 ASA and used it in my 1960's Asahi Pentax SV